Eeech - it's been a long time. Too long of a time between blogs and we're super sorry. It's been pretty busy times at the No Hairs Ark Headquaters.

Here are a few dot points to catch you up:

* We turned two years old! Yep, No Hairs Ark have been active online for over 730 days, but longer as a physically rescue. Hmm... 730 days doesn't seem like a long time, but during that time, we have rehomed over 40 dogs! Now that is something to be proud of.

* Oxford, our little million dollar dog (not really!) has found a home. We're so happy for him.

* Illy, his daughter, has found her perfect spot with her own forever home too - she's happy being a farm girl in country Victoria now.

* Old Man Nelson is still doing super well, despite his meds and all his quirks of old age (he's now a spiritely 13 years old!)

* We've had many a fun outing - most recently at Knox Pets In The Park 2016, which was really positive for us with our information booth.

And, our biggest news to date... WE'RE GOING TO THE DOG LOVERS SHOW IN MELBOUNE!

This is some very big news for us as it is such a massive event filled to the brim with all things dog. We will be in the Canidae Rescue zone (Stall R8) on Day 1 which is Friday April 29th and for Saturday April 30th and Sunday May 1st, we will be involved in the Pat A Pooch program where Pew will be flaunting herself for pats, and we'll be about to answer questions - if we're very lucky, we will even have a special guest - and we're not talking about Dr. Chris Brown.

Now is a great time to get your tickets - so head on over to THE DOG LOVERS SHOW and collect yours - it's running in Melbourne and Sydney this year so be sure to get the right venue!

Hi there and welcome to another of No Hairs Ark’s blogs – we hope you and your puppers have been well!

Our little stall :)

Okay – where to start…? What a time we’ve had in the last month – we left you with the news that we’d be having our first big day out, which was AWESOME, but very hot. There was lots of media coverage and our Holly even got in the Herald Sun, pictured alongside Breeze who met her new mum and went to her forever home at the end of the day.

We met so many people along with the Melbourne Chinese Crested Club. With everything we sold at the market, we were able to raise about $280 for the No Hairs Ark veterinary bill. We learnt a lot being our first stall, so we’re looking forward to having a few more in the future, with an awesome selection of homemade goodies from irresistable pupper snacks, scented TahKayla soy wax candles, exclusive designs from Whippet and Moo dapper dog collars and more!

Even though No Hairs Ark wasn't mentioned, we're pretty rapt to see Holly decked out with her Whippet and Moo in print

We also introduced you to Oxford and Illy – a bonded father and daughter Chinese Crested pigeon pair. Both dogs had the needed and necessary vet work (only desexing and a dental for Illy and a big old dental for Ox leaving him more bark than bite!) and after that, we got ready to list them for adoption – suddenly Illy developed a mammary lump which needed a swift removal and Ox started a soft coughing, which needed a series of x-rays. Illy’s lump turned out benign and Ox’s cough was me being an over concerned mama bear. Sometimes I just can't help it, but we'd much rather be safe than sorry when it comes to the health and livelihood of our beautiful charges.

A week later we booked them in for a groom at Croydon Discount Dog Grooming (seriously, call Helena if you're in the area, she's great!) to then go and capture some great shots for their adoption profiles, however something really bad happened to Oxford and this is where our blog goes a bit sad.

Here is Ox's neck - arrows point to the calcification and subsequent location of the herniation.

On Wednesday 16th, Ox started crying randomly and carrying his head really low – then he started not even wanting to walk or lay with us on the bed. We took him to the vet for a check-up and she agreed he was very sore. We tried him on a liquid painkiller and anti-inflammatory called Loxicom. There was no luck with that and on the Friday he was even worse. Another check-up meant more x-rays for Ox which revealed some calcification to his neck and we were sent home with Tramadol and Delta Cortef to start in the morning. Fast forward to the next Tuesday and Oxo was actually worse – he was crying at the tiniest breeze and it was rather guttural now and we had been forced to syringe feed him for the past 3 days. We booked in with a specialist at Pet Emergency and Specialist Centre named Dr. Chris Preston. Chris had us in the next day, first thing and Oxo was given another general anaesthetic and popped through a CT scan. The CT scan confirmed something we dreaded – a massively herniated disk. Ox needed surgery to save his life and it wouldn’t come cheap. But he was under anaesthetic and we needed to make a decision then and there.

Oxford's CT scans - we have circled the problematic herniation.

We had three options:1. Wake him up and hospice nurse him until the end.2. Not wake him up and let him go while he was under.3. Surgery at that moment.

Myself, I was in tears, while Steve was stuck being the pragmatic head of the rescue. Surgery would mean the rescue would be put back several thousand dollars and would ultimately see us with a cleared out bank account (both the rescue and our personal account) – but we knew Ox was a beautiful dog that would make someone very happy – he was only 7 and still had so much more life to live – so we went with the surgery.

We said our goodbyes to Oxford, who was still in lala land, as we had to leave him there overnight, which was tough in itself.

However it seemed as if we were only down the street (in reality over 2 hours had passed) and we got the phone call - all was done and Ox was already conscious and sitting upright! What a trooper!

So it was a great success - even the specialist was surprised at the amount of fluid he took out of Oxford! And better yet, we were told we were able to bring him home the next day on Christmas Eve – having him back is like a Christmas miracle. But as I mentioned, even though Chris Preston was amazingly generous to us, it took a huge toll on the rescue as our emergency funds are now gone and our veterinary bill at our regular clinic is getting all kinds of crazy.

We know it is very close to Christmas and it is a tight time of year for us all - but if you can spare the donation; please, please think of us - we can only move forward with the rescue with your help - we literally run on generous donations and adoption fees. There are many ways you can help us:

Thanks to PESC, Oxo (now at home sleeping soundly - morphine is an amazing thing) has many happy years ahead of him - but we desperately need donations as his specialist surgery wiped us out.

Directly to our veterinary clinic:Call (03) 9870 0303 and ask to donate to No Hairs Ark

But to end on a happy note – during the time that Oxford took unwell, we were able to place Illy in a foster home where she could work on becoming an independent little Crestie that didn’t need her dad around – she’s flourished in Jan’s care and I’m happy to say when she is ready, we can certainly look into rehoming her without Oxford. More on that in the New Year.

Oh, and finally – No Hairs Ark wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – remember not to let your puppers into the human food and stay safe during any fireworks.

Thank you for all your support and see you in 2016!

Merry "Take This Off Me RIGHT NOW"-mas from the girls of No Hairs Ark - representatives Tonks, Holly and Pew, from Left to Right.